Fairy Tail Chapter 545 Review

The concluding chapter to the Fairy Tail manga. SPOILERS follow. 

Sometimes it's hard to place words for how to feel after reading the conclusion to a story. Especially a story that you've been emotionally attached to for years. It's saying goodbye to a friend, it's knowing that you'll never experience this sort of thing again in such a unique way. In several respects, it's a sad thing to see a series you love end.

But as all good things should, this story also comes to a solid, natural conclusion. Fairy Tail Chapter 545 answers questions, leaves new ones to hang over the heads of fans, but is probably the perfect summation of the series that came before it. Some will argue that it doesn't show any development for their characters and some will say that it's just another big tease for many of the characters in a romantic sense. Perhaps it didn't address all the burning questions we had left over and perhaps there are some conclusions that are less than satisfying. 

By the end of the chapter I couldn't help smiling, though, because this was the ending that I think the story both needed and deserved. It was the only way that Fairy Tail could go out, it was the ending that many of us should have seen coming with some GLORIOUS bits and pieces thrown in. 

Immediately, too, it starts strong as we see that Lucy has won an award for the novel she'd been writing all series. One of the strongest components of the chapter is its heavy focus on Lucy and how much she has grown. The Lucy we met at the beginning of the series would have gone ballistic about all of this and made such a big deal, but instead she's more subdued, humbled by her recent experiences. Still, she accepts the award with much appreciation and respect for herself and her peers. She's a grown woman now, someone who's seen the world for what it is and learned to love it every step of the way. 

The chapter is, in a sense, one big "what's up" regarding all the member of the guild (naturally with a one-year time skip since the end of the battle/ last chapter), including some people outside of the Guild like Anna Heartfilia and Jellal, and even a nice aside mention of the Alvarrez Empire (which, thanks to Zeref finally dying, no longer had an Emperor or army of an reputable size). But that's fine. The chapter runs about twenty pages longer than normal and doesn't waste a panel, instead letting us focus on all the characters so we're not left wondering "well what about THEM?" There are tons to get through, too, and Mashima highlights the ones that he knows fans will be dying to know about. 

That's one thing about the chapter that delighted me: it's so self-aware. Mashima has to know by now all of the different romantic groupings that fans have regarding the series and he plays around with that so much in the chapter. There's an entire bit where he screws around with who Laxus will end up with, and it almost feels as if he's dangling a rope around waiting for every to jump around and go for a ride with it. I love it. 

The chapter is rife with comedy as well, stemming from a running joke where Wendy, still with the mind of an innocent little girl, can't help but eavesdrop on various secrets and "naughty" things that the others are saying to one another...like 

Gajeel and Levy possibly having a baby! 

WHAT

Or Gray finally admitting that he wants Juvia! And yes, in that way. But also the "not" that way, like that he wants to be in a relationship with her and all that. Although you have to wonder if Gray and Juvia seriously didn't do anything during the time that he was pretending to be evil and they were isolated in the woods. Come on. We're not that dumb. 

Wendy's little innocence raid is one of the many gags that finally comes to a close as we see Gray and Natsu confront each other over Gray stripping down, a reflex it seems he'll never get over, and Gildarts and Cana have a final embarrassing father-daughter moment. 

One of the best early bits of the chapter comes when we learn that Jellal and the Oracion Seis have been given and pardon. In just a single panel, Mashima is able to convey the fact that Jellal has redeemed himself and is ready to forge through with his life, and it's so fitting that Jellal's final words are "Live..." as he contemplates just what to do.

After all, when he wasn't being possessed by Ultear or seeking to redeem himself and the Oracion Seis, he really wasn't living. Jellal never got to lead a normal life, and now he has that opportunity. While I maybe would've liked to see him working as a Royal Guard or perhaps starting to reform the Magic Council, to mirror his original, evil scheme, I'm okay with this being left up to interpretation, and letting us all ponder what Jellal became. It's always been a mystery as to what he would do afterward, and letting that mystery linger just makes sense. It's also fitting that Erza and Jellal not get together, much as fans would want it.

The attraction between the two seems to be part romantic, yes, but it's mostly a desire to understand the other. Erza always wanted to understand what drove Jellal to becoming evil as well as how he planned on redeeming himself, while Jellal wanted to understand how Erza drew strength from those around her. I don't think they would work in a romantic sense, like how Gajeel and Levy would. Those two make sense romantically because they fill a void the other has. Gajeel is irrational and never thinks straight while Levy often needs a shove to get her drive going. But it's nice to know that Erza has finally let go of that past and looks forward to her future.

Besides a moment near the end, quite possibly the most resounding moment of the chapter, and one that's sure to cause controversy, is this:

I'll admit: I had a knee-jerk reaction of "are you kidding me?!?!?" to this. But when I thought about it, I fell in love with this moment instantly. 

Okay. Look. These are technically Mavis and Zeref, but it's really not them. It's their personalities as we knew them before the story started, and it's actually their reincarnations. 

We never learned the after effects of Ankhseram. It was a terrible curse that wrought immortality and torture down on whoever had it, but given the manner of their deaths, and given the state their bodies are in, it's entirely possibly that the destruction of the curse meant that Mavis and Zeref died but their souls lived on, and they could not lead a normal life. 

This isn't Batman meeting the Joker after they "died" and it was clear that they were still Batman and the Joker in Scott Snyder/ Greg Capullo's Batman "Superheavy" arc. This is just reincarnation, a magic-based one, and it's now two strangers meeting for the first time, centered around, quite fitting, Lucy. 

It's almost meta in a way. The fact that Lucy would be the one to bring them together, when it was, from a literal storytelling standpoint, Lucy the one that brought them about. It's her adventure that led us here, it's Mashima's desire to tell Lucy's story that would bring them together. 

But from an in-world perspective this moment brings loads upon loads of thematic closure for the series. Everyone's reaction upon seeing the boy who looks like Zeref, named Arius, approaching the little girl who looks like Mavis, named Mio, is one of absolute dread. A nice little note is that it's Natsu who is full of fear upon seeing Arius, as you just know, in that single shot, that he's wondering if this means any part of E.N.D. is still active within him. 

And yet, it's just two people. Meeting and, possibly, falling in love. It's what should have happened had, possibly, destiny not gotten in the way. Arius is such a natural substitue for Zeref, too, as he exemplifies everything that young Zeref had been: shy, quiet, to himself, and so tender and kind. Zeref's ultimate tragedy was that he became twisted and malevolent out of a love of his younger brother Natsu. Mavis's tragedy was that love became her undoing as well, but they were driven down two different paths simply due to time. Now that they're together, they can just continue on as normal people. No magic, no dragons, just life. It's great. 

Thematically, it closes the gap on how the theme of love has been seen throughout this series as a balanced force of good and evil. Zeref, not the ultimate evil, and Mavis, not the ultimate good, tried to use love in such a way that it drove their friends into battle. In the end, though, they only needed to accept love into themselves in order to realize what they truly had. It's why Zeref never made sense as the ultimate bad guy, and why it had to be Acnologia:

Acnologia was the ultimate evil that Fairy Tail faced. He made them miss seven years of their lives, he instilled fear in everyone's hearts, he forced the Dragon Slayers away from their surrogate parents, HE KILLED IGNEEL and ended Natsu's original quest! He had to be the final boss, even if his final battle isn't the stuff of legend. 

The emotional centerpiece comes up next and oof. 

OOF. 

It hits hard. 

As Lucy wakes up to find, for the final time in the series, Natsu and Happy crashing at her place, a flood of memories overcomes her and she basically has little flashes of highlights from across the series, and what's great is that they seem to be lifted straight as the original drawings, so we get the old-school designs of Lucy, Natsu, and Happy before they got all polished up. A nice touch. 

There's a pretty simple, but very effective, two-page spread of Lucy embracing Natsu and Happy, crying over the fact that if she never met them she never would have gone on this adventure. And now you're sad because if she never met them you never would have gone on this adventure! 

In only the way that Natsu Dragneel can, he totally dodges a romantic moment, flings Lucy and Happy out the door, and declares that he finally got permission for what he wanted to do after the war with Alvarrez was over! 

A 100 Year Quest! 

And so, Hiro Mashima's Fairy Tail ends as Lucy Heartfilia narrates the question that has driven the series: do fairies have tails? It doesn't matter. It's the eternal question that will drive the never-ending adventure of a silly guild known as Fairy Tail, and we close with Zera, a little Fairy, telling us goodbye. 

This chapter does so many things right. It stays true to the characters, gives quite a few of them closure, has that sense of comedy you come to expect (admittedly with quite a bit of fan service but what's Fairy Tail without fan-service, I guess?) and just ends on the only way it can: another adventure! If the series had ended with the guild members retiring, or them settling down with kids, it wouldn't have been natural. It doesn't make sense for this group that has a need to constantly be on the move, to constantly seek new friends and to never stop fighting the good fight. 

This chapter is Fairy Tail, for good or for ill. It's full of joy and laughter and just a great sense of fun. From the bottom of my heart I want to say thank you to Hiro Mashima and Shonen Jump for providing us this series for so many years. I'll miss this story, I'll miss these characters, but much like this chapter, I can always look back on those adventures with a smile, and know that I had one hell of a time with it.